Technical issues at Great Yarmouth's Herring Bridge

The Herring Bridge opened to much fanfare on Thursday as hundreds of people gathered at the new River Yare crossing to be the first in line to make the passage from William Adams Way to Southgates Road.

Following glitches over the weekend, including swearing being broadcast from its control room, Norfolk County Council has said it is still taking longer than expected to raise and lower the bridge.

People gathered at the Herring Bridge's eastern approach for its official opening on Thursday. Picture - Luke Martin Photography (Image: Luke Martin Photography)After Thursday's opening, the bridge was closed for periods over Saturday and Sunday, with operators caught swearing after accidentally leaving the control tower public address system switched on for all to hear.

A cyclist on the bridge on Saturday afternoon recorded the foul-mouthed affair, with one worker saying: "I've been dealing with this ***** issue for four hours" before exclaiming "Oh for ****'s sake".

A spokesperson for Norfolk County Council said: "A technical issue with Herring Bridge was identified by the operators on Saturday afternoon which meant that the bridge was temporarily closed to road traffic for a few hours over Saturday and Sunday to allow for investigations and testing to be carried out, although for the most part the crossing has remained available for use by road traffic.

"Currently the operation to open and close the bridge is taking slightly longer than would usually be expected.

"We are continuing to work on getting the bridge operating as usual as a matter of urgency and we hope to be able to provide a further update on this as soon as possible, hopefully by Monday afternoon.

"We apologise for any inconvenience or frustration this issue has caused to river and road users and we are working with our contractor to try to minimise the risk of a similar issue occurring again in the future."

The council confirmed engineers from the local area - supported by specialists from further afield - got to the site over the weekend in order to investigate and start to fix the problem as a matter of urgency.

One engineer came from Yorkshire to provide assistance.